Ghana MTC opens doors to visitors

The new Ghana Missionary Training Center opens doors to visitors through August 12. The dedication of the building will be held on October 24.

Mormon Newsroom reported the original MTC was built in 2002 in Tema, Ghana, and it could fit 90 missionaries.

“With the growing church in Africa, Church leaders decided to build a larger MTC next to the Accra Ghana Temple,” according to Mormon Newsroom. “The new MTC can house 320 missionaries, and there’s room to add on to accommodate 500 if needed.”

According to Mormon Newsroom, the MTC is divided into four structures: a training building, a multipurpose building, a residential building and a kitchen/dining hall.

Elder Dale G. Renlund, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, attended the open house with his wife, according to Mormon Newsroom.

“As we walked through the halls and went into the classrooms, we sense already a real profound spirit that comes from those that have planned and built it,” Elder Renlund said to Mormon Newsroom. “It will be a phenomenal place for missionaries to learn about the Savior and to learn how to share His gospel.”

According to Mormon Newsroom, the instructors will train and teach the new missionaries in English and in French.

“We try to remind the missionaries that this mission experience is the greatest kind of preparation that the Lord can give them to prepare them for their entire life,” said Stephen L. Graham, former Ghana MTC mission president, to LDS.org.

Elder Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah, Area Seventy in Ghana, said to Mormon Newsroom that the new MTC was built because of the growth of the Church in the area.

“I just look back many years ago when I joined the Church,” Elder Yirenya-Tawiah said to Mormon Newsroom. “We hardly even had our own chapel. We worshiped in rented buildings. To have such a facility to train missionaries, to train our sons and daughters who will go out to preach the word of God right here in Ghana is just a great feeling.”